


Love Like You

by Knight_Of_Breath



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Emilie Agreste is only mentioned, F/F, Ladybug is a good friend, Nathalie is sad, Not explicitly mentioned, Past Relationship(s), adrien is SAD, and is bi, cannon character death, miraculous lesbians, they both miss Emilie, yknow cuz shes dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 15:23:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15076052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knight_Of_Breath/pseuds/Knight_Of_Breath
Summary: The house is too large. It always has been, always will be. So, despite having been here his entire life, Adrien is surprised to find something else he never knew about this house. Even if it was as simple as a small box stashed away in the depths of Adrien's closet.





	Love Like You

**Author's Note:**

> Based loosely on this animatic: https://youtu.be/kauhfUMbPQU

The house is too large. It always has been, always will be. So, despite having been here his entire life, Adrien is surprised to find something else he never knew about this house. Even if it was as simple as a small box stashed away in the depths of Adrien's closet that he wouldn’t have found if he didn’t need to find something. He’s surprised that he has never seen it before, and even more so that it’s in his room. He opened up the box, slowly. Plagg floated above his shoulder, silently intrigued. And in the box, are pictures of his mom. His beautiful, lovely mom. 

The first one was of her, sitting on a park bench near the Eiffel tower. Her long hair, down and curled into beautiful waves. It was just before sunset, the light softly reflecting onto her face. Her eyes were closed, and face was scrunched as if she was laughing at something hilarious. Presumably the ice cream she is holding, cone in one hand, the ice cream in the other. The moment seemed to be exactly what he saw of his mom.

He reaches for the next one, which is just as intimate as the first. It's dark out in this once. She's laying in a field, her hand intertwined with someone else's. There are lights all around them. Small fireflies that danced around her, illuminating parts of her. There were a few right in front of her face, her green eyes sparking with the reflection of light and something akin to mischief. 

He looks through photo after photo. Always the same. His mom. All alone, except for the cameraman. There's one of her at the park, sitting beneath a large tree and reading. One where she's at a cafe, her hands entwined with someone else's yet again. One where she's in the solitude of her own home, whip cream on her nose. She's striking a very silly pose at that one. 

Adrien thinks these must be his father's, until the last two. One of them is Nathalie. Her hair is down, and she isn't paying much attention to the camera. She is grinning brightly, laying back on a picnic blanket and looking more relaxed than Adrien has ever seen her before. It's a sunny day in that picture. Her hand is in someone else's. He pauses to look back at the other pictures and the hands most definitely match. 

The last picture is of the both of them. Nathalie is gazing into his mom's eyes with an admiration he can only compare to the one he feels when he's with ladybug. She has a soft smile on her lips, and an even softer gaze. He can't help but feel uncomfortable. Did she love his mom? They knew each other besides from his dad? By the way his mom was staring back at her, he knew she must have felt the same way. 

He flipped the picture over and found some scrawling on the back. It was in big loopy letters. 

Nathalie and Emille 5/16/94 

Adrien puts the pictures back in the box slowly. He isn't sure what to do with this information. Everything he thought was true… wasn't? He thought Nathalie just worked for his dad the entire time. He looks over at Plagg, who has been strangely quiet. He seemed to be contemplating something. 

Adrien put the box down and covered it up again, sliding it into its dark hiding space. “Uhh, Adri-” Plagg tried, but was cut off when Adrien walked out of the walk-in closet briskly. He had a destination in mind, and Plagg just sighed and shuffled into Adrien’s pocket. Adrien reached his room and locked his door. He lays down on his bed and screams into his pillow. He's confused and, honestly kind of angry. 

He rolled off the bed and sighs at the ceiling. “Plag, what am I going to do?” 

“Beats me. We should get some cheese, though!” This made Adrien frown. This is not right. He shouldn't be in his room. He slowly gets to his feet. He’s going to confront Nathalie about those pictures……….

 

 

Later. 

What can he say, he doesn’t want to deal with it. So, he throws himself into other things for now. Adrien inhales sharply. “Plagg, claws out!” 

Then he's off. He hops from building to building, trying to escape these feelings. It isn't long before he runs into ladybug. “Hey, Chat.” She says, smiling softly. He can't muster the courage to smile back. Her smile drops. “Are you alright?” 

Adrien shrugs and takes a seat on the building. Ladybug sits right next to him. “Do you want to talk about it?” He shrugs again. Taking a long pause. 

“Do you…... So, I know that guys can like guys, girls can like girls….. But can you like both?” He looks over and Ladybugs eyes widen and then narrow in what he assumes is confusion. 

“Well, yeah. That's something called Bisexual. Err, there are a lot of different types, but bisexual is the most known. I'm actually bi.” She explains, using hand gestures. Chat nod.

“So, if a girl dated a girl and then she got married to a guy and had a kid…. She would still love the kid, right?” He sees Ladybugs entire expression soften. 

“Of course, silly kitty. She probably loved her husband, too.” He grins and grabs his Lady, pulling her into a hug. She tenses before relaxing and returning the hug.  
They stayed like that for a few minutes, letting the silence settle in. It doesn't last long because Adrien needs to get home. Ladybug bids him farewell and yoyos away. Probably to her house. 

He doesn't stay long after and goes to his house. He sneaks in through his window and drops his transformation. Plagg floats in front of his face and crosses his arms. “What?” Adrien asks.

“You still haven’t gotten me the camembert.” He knows Plagg isn’t just talking about the cheese… It’s only mostly about the cheese. So, he sighs and goes to find Nathalie.

He finds Nathalie in her office, typing something out on the computer. “Uhhh…” He finds himself saying, not quite sure why he is saying it. Nathalie looks up. “Hello, Adrien.” He smiles awkwardly. “Hi, Nathalie. Um, Nathalie…. Can I talk to you about something?” her brow furrowed in confusion, but she motioned to the empty chair in front of her desk. 

“Of course. What is it?” He looks down at his hands, losing all confidence in a wave of anxiety. He twiddled his thumbs, thinking of the best way to phrase it. Nathalie waits patiently for his answer.

“Did you know my mom?” Adrien blurts out and watches as Nathalie's face goes from confusion, to panic, and finally landing on sadness. 

“Yes. I did. We met when I came over to France for my degree. Why do you ask?” He frowns. This isn’t enough information for him. He debates with himself for a moment on whether to avoid talking about the photos, or to just come clean. It would be a lot harder for him to get information without being completely honest. 

“I…. Found some photos… of my mom… and you.” Nathalie’s eyes widen again, and she abruptly stands up. “Where? Can I see them?” Adrien is taken aback by the sudden and intense emotion from her, but he nods slowly. He stands and leads her to his room, then his closet. He fishes out the box and sets it in front of them. Nathalie sits on the floor and Adrien joins her.

She lifts the lid and gasps softly. Her hands tremble as she lifts the pictures out of the box, eyes scanning the first one. Her hand moves to cover her mouth as she gasps. “This… This was.. Our first date.” Adrien motioned for her to continue silently. 

“Well, it was sort of a date. She took me out to the Eiffel tower.” She smiled bittersweetly. “She even got us ice cream. Some kid bumped into her and her ice cream fell, but She always had amazing reflexes and she grabbed it out of midair” She chuckled, but tears were still in her eyes. 

She moved to the next picture and a few tears fell down her cheeks, hitting her other hand. After a sharp inhale she begins to talk again. 

“This…. This is my favorite. We decided to ‘sneak’ out late at night. Which was just me getting out without my roommate noticing. We were out there for hours and suddenly, the fireflies came out and-” she choked back a sob. “I-I'm sorry Adrien. This is very unprofessional of me.” Adrien shakes his head. 

“No. It's okay Nathalie. I miss her too.” This makes her look up at him and nod. She wipes her eyes. “Yes. Would you like me to sto-” 

Adrien cuts her off before she can finish her thought. “No! Please… I want to know more about her.” He thinks he must look so pitiful. Though Nathalie smiles and nods. “Alright.”

“She was…. Amazing. It's hard to describe.” She pauses to go through them and lands on the one where his mom has whip cream on her nose. “This. This is your mom. Always so fun and happy. We were making ice cream sundaes. She tried to have me put gummy bears in them. She said she had been doing it since she was a kid.” Nathalie crinkled her nose in disgust. 

“The texture was just awful.” Adrien chuckles a bit at that. Still, a question plagued his mind. 

“What….What exactly was your relationship with her?” Nathalie’s eyes widen before settling back into a sad droop. 

“We were….. Well, it’s complicated. We were lovers for a short amount of time. But, neither of our parents would accept that. So, I became the next best thing. Her best friend. Then she met your dad and…. I stayed for her. I stayed so I could be there for her.” Adrien nodded slowly. 

“How can you be happy living like that?” He questions before he can think better of it. He quickly realizes his mistake and goes to apologize, but she's already answering his question. 

“Love is strange. I was happy… just being near her. I'm not unhappy either! I make a good amount of money.” She explains. “I was okay just being her friend and being by her side, so she can be happy.” Adrien nods slowly, he thinks he understands. 

“Well, if it's worth anything, I'm happy you're here.” Her eyes slowly widen and she smiles softly. 

“I'm happy you're here too, Adrien.” Then Nathalie gets up and leaves. 

Adrien leans back and closes his eyes as his door closes with a soft click. He knows the house is still too large and there are still things he's yet to uncover, although at this moment he can't help but feel at peace with this place and his newfound information.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! This took me forever to write! It was a lot of fun and I hope you guys enjoy it!!


End file.
